The industry has reacted with uncertainty to the advisory, with some questioning whether it merely reiterates existing regulations or imposes new mandates
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an advisory to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry. This advisory, released on 1st March, outlined new guidelines regarding generative AI products. According to the advisory, any generative AI products deemed unreliable or still in the testing phase would require explicit permission from the Government of India.
This move follows earlier concerns raised by Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, regarding Google’s Gemini chatbot. The chatbot sparked controversy by responding to a query about Prime Minister Modi with a term that stirred public debate. Chandrasekhar stated that such responses violated existing IT laws.
The industry has reacted with uncertainty to the advisory, with some questioning whether it merely reiterates existing regulations or imposes new mandates. Notably, the Legal Director of the Software Freedom Law Centre in Delhi sees the advisory as akin to a government order, with major tech companies like Google being asked to submit reports on their compliance within 15 days.
Chandrasekhar emphasised the legal ramifications for platforms allowing or generating illegal content, citing defamation, false information, and pornography as examples. However, the application of existing laws to AI systems remains unclear, prompting criticism from experts like technology lawyer Pranesh Prakash, who called the advisory “legally unsound.”
The advisory also addressed the issue of AI-generated images, requiring clear marking to distinguish them. Amazon Web Services had previously experimented with an “invisible” watermark, though doubts persist about its effectiveness due to concerns over easy removal.
The government’s stance on the AI industry has been generally optimistic, particularly when Big Tech companies strike a balance between AI and existing regulations. Last year, the IT Ministry explicitly stated that no new regulations were being considered to govern AI development in India.
